Extinguishing water

Extinguishing water is a type of contaminated water that needs to be managed, as it often contains high levels of PFAS from fire-fighting foam. As the name suggests, it arises during fire suppression and can contain a range of different pollutants depending on the materials and chemicals exposed during the firefighting process.

Common contaminants

Extinguishing water often contains elevated levels of PFAS, heavy metals, phthalates, oils, chemicals, and various organic substances. These are transported with stormwater to stormwater drains, which means the contaminated water reaches the stormwater network and can spread further into our watercourses.

Quick and simple solution – minimize damage at the source

When extinguishing a local fire, such as a car fire, it can be useful to have products that allow emergency services to quickly minimize the damage to stormwater. Therefore, we have developed a catch basin filter that can be installed in the drain in just a few minutes. The filter prevents hydrocarbons, dirt, sediment, and other pollutants from flowing into the stormwater drainage system. It can also be used on construction sites, industrial facilities, and parking lots.

You can read more about it here: www.swehydro.com/technology/catch-basin-filter/

PFAS in MSB’s extinguishing water treated to undetectable levels

The result for BioMedia® was the removal of both PFAS and metals, with an extremely high purification rate. The filter reduced the level of PFAS (slv11) from 1050 ng/l to below the detection limit of 2.5 ng/l. At the same time, the concentration of metals – such as cadmium, chromium, nickel, iron, zinc, and copper – decreased by around or over 99% for each individual metal.